Why I Keep AI Out of My Edits (But Not Out of My Business)

There's a question I have been asked more and more lately: do you use AI to edit your photos?

The honest answer is no. And it's not because I'm precious about it or trying to make a point; it's because the editing is the work. It's where the film-inspired look actually happens: the color grading, the grain, the specific kind of warmth I chase in every frame. That's not a filter I found, it's years of developing an eye for what Timeless Tales is supposed to feel like. If I handed that off to an algorithm, I'd be handing off the one part of this job that's actually mine.

Authenticity is a big deal to me; not just as a buzzword. It is how I want people to show up in their photos: unposed, candid, themselves. It feels a little contradictory to preach that and then let a robot decide how those same photos should look. My clients aren't paying for "a nice photo." They're paying for my specific taste, my read on light, my sense of when a shot feels like a memory instead of just an image. That's not something I'm willing to outsource, even for the sake of saving time.

So no, my creative process stays mine, start to finish. Every edit, every color choice, every polaroid I hand someone at an event — that's me, on purpose.

Where I do use AI, and use it happily, is everywhere else. Running a photography business means being a photographer for maybe a third of my actual working hours. The rest is scheduling, planning content, researching where to show up next, figuring out pricing, keeping track of a hundred small details across shoots, markets, and a newsletter list. That's the part of the job that used to eat the time I'd rather spend behind the camera or in the edit.

I have also been a tech marketer for over a decade so I have learned to understand how AI complements my life vs replacing me as a human. AI helps me get time back. It helps me plan what to post and when, keeps track of what I've already said so I'm not repeating myself, helps me think through pricing decisions, and does research I don't have hours in the day for. It's a tool for running the business, not for making the art. I think that distinction matters more than people realize. There's a difference between using AI to think faster about logistics, and using it to think for you creatively.

I don't think there's one right answer here for every creative business. But for me, the craft is the point. If I ever let something else make the creative calls, I don't think I'd still recognize the work as mine. So the edits stay mine, the eye stays mine, and the stuff that keeps the lights on so I can keep doing the work I actually love, gets all the help I can find.

If that's the kind of photographer you're looking for, one who's still doing the actual seeing and choosing herself, I'd love to work with you.